Biomedical subjects

R F Antonak

Publications and source records attributed to R F Antonak.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Measurement of attitudes towards persons with disabilities.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to assist those engaged in research dealing with attitudes towards persons with disabilities by presenting a catalogue of various attitude measurement methods. METHOD: A review of the methodological and psychological literatures on the measurement of attitudes towards persons with disabilities. RESULTS: The review uncovered 10 direct methods to measure attitudes, in which the respondents are aware that they are participating in an experiment and 14 indirect methods in four categories that are not plagued by attitude-distorting influences because the respondents are not aware that their attitudes are being measured. A discussion of each method with examples is provided, followed by implications for rehabilitation practitioners, rehabilitation education and training, and rehabilitation researchers. CONCLUSIONS: The investigation of attitudes towards persons with disabilities requires innovative experimental methods and psychometrically sound instruments that are reliable, valid, and multidimensional. Without such instruments, it will not be possible to obtain conclusive answers to important research questions concerning the relationship between these attitudes and the acceptance and integration of persons with disabilities into society.

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed1999

Psychosocial adaptation to amputation: the role of sociodemographic variables, disability-related factors and coping strategies.

This study examined the roles of sociodemographic variables, disability-related factors, and coping strategies as predictors of the psychosocial adaptation of 61 persons with amputations. Psychosocial adaptation was conceptualized as a multifaceted outcome criterion and was measured by seven scales from the Reactions to Impairment and Disability Inventory (RIDI) and the Acceptance of Disability (AD) scale. A series of multiple regression analyses indicated that both a set of sociodemographic variables and disability-related factors (age, duration of amputation, type of amputation) and a set of coping strategies (action problem-solving, emotion-focusing, behavioral/problem disengagement, cognitive disengagement) accounted, albeit differentially, for significant portions of the variance in the outcome measures of psychosocial adaptation to amputation. Of the various coping strategies, active problem-solving was negatively associated with the psychosocial reactions of depression and internalized anger (RIDI) but it was positively associated to adjustment (RIDI) and acceptance of disability (AD). Emotion-focusing and cognitive disengagement were positively associated with anxiety, depression, and externalized hostility (RIDI) and negatively associated with acceptance of disability (AD). Measurement and theoretical implications are briefly outlined.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Psychosocial adaptation to disability and its investigation among persons with multiple sclerosis.

This review begins with a general discussion of the concept of psychosocial adaptation to disability, reaction phases that the adaptation process is thought to comprise, instruments to measure adaptation and the basic research questions that need to be addressed to construct a theoretical model for the process. The research literature concerning psychosocial adaptation to disability among persons with multiple sclerosis is reviewed as an illustration. Research problems identified in this review are then listed, with suggestions for future research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Influence of mental retardation severity and respondent characteristics on self-reported attitudes toward mental retardation and eugenics.

Eugenics refers to the investigation of means of social control to improve the mental or physical qualities of future generations. The present study investigated whether the self-reported attitudes toward mental retardation and eugenics of a sample of 572 respondents would vary as a function of (I) severity of the mental retardation attitude referent; and (2) respondent sociodemographic characteristics. Among the respondents, 380 were health and human service providers (66% upper division undergraduate students and 34% graduate level professionals) and 192 were upper division undergraduate students majoring in fields other than health and human services. The results supported these conclusions: (1) psychometric characteristics of the scales used to measure attitudes were adequate; (2) increasing mental retardation severity was related to increasing endorsement of eugenic principles, independent of global attitudes toward people with mental retardation; and (3) respondent education was related to the expression of eugenic attitudes toward mild mental retardation, while familiarity with people with mental retardation was related to the expression of eugenic attitudes toward moderate and profound mental retardation.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1994

Psychometric analysis and revision of the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory.

Psychometric analyses of data from 230 individuals yielded a 29-item four-scale revision of Harth's (1974) original 50-item five-scale summated-rating inventory to measure attitudes toward individuals with mental retardation. Results showed (a) satisfactory item characteristics; (b) adequate reliability and homogeneity for the inventory; (c) support for the four-part multidimensional structure of the inventory; (d) adequate reliability, homogeneity, specificity, and independence of the four scales; and (d) initial support for the validities of the inventory and the four scales. Additional analyses revealed that overall inventory and scale scores were not biased by social desirability responding. The inventory should be useful for the investigation of questions concerning attitudes toward individuals with mental retardation and the relations of these attitudes to mental retardation policies and practices.

Attitude↗

PubMed1994

Development and psychometric analysis of an indirect measure of attitudes toward individuals with mental retardation using the error-choice method.

The Test of Knowledge About Mental Retardation consists of 20 error-choice items requiring respondents to select one of four incorrect alternatives. The true purpose of the test (measurement of attitudes) is disguised by the inclusion of 20 items of general knowledge about mental retardation. Analyses of data indicated satisfactory item characteristics, adequate reliability and homogeneity, and preliminary support for criterion-related validity. The test should be useful for investigating the attitudes of service providers whose responses to a questionnaire may be biased by respondent sensitization and social desirability responding.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

A scale of attitudes toward the application of eugenics to the treatment of people with mental retardation.

As part of a larger study of the attitudes of diverse samples towards the application of eugenics to the treatment of people with mental retardation, a 32-item summated rating scale was developed as a contemporary, brief, easy to administer and score, and psychometrically sound instrument. Data were collected and analysed that indicated satisfactory item characteristics and reliability, and initial support for the content and construct validities of the scale. Analyses of social desirability data revealed that scale scores were not influenced by the subjects' desire to adhere to socially desirable expectations. The scale should be useful for the investigation of questions concerning the formation, structure and correlates of attitudes toward the application of eugenics to the treatment of people with mental retardation, and the relationship of these attitudes to contemporary mental retardation policies and practices.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

A hierarchy of reactions to disability.

The responses of 118 individuals with non-congenital physical disabilities to the 60-item Reactions to Impairment and Disability Inventory (RIDI) were submitted to an ordering-theoretic data analysis procedure. The RIDI provides information on eight patterns of psychosocial reactions to disability, namely: shock, anxiety, denial, depression, internalized anger, externalized hostility, acknowledgement and adjustment. The resultant nonlinear multidimensional hierarchy of contingent relationships among the eight scales was interpreted with reference to the clinical literature and to previous investigations designed to validate the existence of patterns of reactions to disability (e.g. Livneh and Antonak, 1990). It is recommended that subsequent research should compare hierarchies derived from data obtained from other, more homogeneous samples to clarify the multidimensional, nonlinear structure of the process of adaptation to disability.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1990

Interactive graphics for the Macintosh: software review of FlexiGraphs.

While this product is clearly unique, its usefulness to individuals outside small business environments is somewhat limited. FlexiGraphs is, however, a reasonable first attempt to design a microcomputer software package that controls data through interactive editing within a graph. Although the graphics capabilities of mainframe programs such as MINITAB (Ryan, Joiner, & Ryan, 1981) and the graphic manipulations available through exploratory data analysis (e.g., Velleman & Hoaglin, 1981) will not be surpassed anytime soon by this program, a researcher may want to add this program to a software library containing other Macintosh statistics, drawing, and graphics programs if only to obtain the easy-to-obtain curve fitting and line smoothing options. I welcome the opportunity to review the enhanced "scientific" version of FlexiGraphs that the author of the program indicates is currently under development. An MS-DOS version of the program should be available within the year.

Computer Graphics↗

PubMed1989

Misconceptions relating to mental retardation.

An updated version of a 9-item questionnaire concerning misconceptions about mental retardation originally developed by Winthrop and Taylor (1956) was administered to a total of 558 individuals from heterogenous samples. The relations of the demographic, experimental, and contact characteristics of the respondents in the 1986 sample to their misconceptions score were explored as were differences in the distributions of the percentages of endorsements of the nine misconceptions for the samples in 1956 and 1986.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1982

Measurement and analysis of Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Epilepsy and Persons with Epilepsy.

The Scale of Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Epilepsy and Persons with Epilepsy (ATPE) was developed as a contemporary, brief, easy to administer and score, psychometrically sound instrument. The 32 item scale consists of 25 statements from which an attitude score is derived and 13 statements from which a knowledge score is derived. Data were collected and analyzed which indicate satisfactory item characteristics, scale reliability and internal consistency. Scale development supports the content validity of the scale, while data from multiple regression and factor analyses support its construct validity. The scale should be useful for the investigation of questions concerning the formation, structure, correlates and modification of knowledge and attitudes regarding epilepsy and persons with epilepsy.

Adult↗

PubMed1981

Prediction of attitudes toward disabled persons: a multivariate analysis.

University students N equals 326 were asked to complete the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons (ATDP) scale Form 0, and their summated scores were correlated with six demographic and experiential variables. A multiple correlation of .25 was obtained between the attitude variable and a composite of the predictors. Intensity of contact with disabled persons accounted for the most variance in attitude scores.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Progeria: medical aspects, psychosocial perspectives, and intervention guidelines.

This article discusses progeria, a rare genetic childhood disorder that invariably results in the individual's death during early adolescence. The article begins by describing the major medical aspects of progeria. This is followed by a discussion of the psychosocial implications of the disorder with particular emphasis upon grief-triggered reactions. The article concludes with an overview of psychosocial intervention guidelines for caregivers who work with families of dying children and adolescents.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Multidimensional investigation of the structure of coping among people with amputations.

In this study, the responses of 61 people with amputations to a measure of coping strategies were submitted to multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Interpretations of the three-dimensional solution, aided by the emergence of five coping clusters, suggested that respondents' perceptions of their coping with amputation-related stress were best explained by the following three dimensions: 1) active/confrontive versus passive/avoidance coping; 2) pessimistic/fatalistic versus optimistic/positivistic coping: and 3) social/emotional versus cognitive coping.

Adaptation, Psychological↗